(Archived) Praxair Food Technologies Announces New ColdFront™ Brand

Temperatures Are Dropping, Yields Increasing as Praxair’s ColdFront™ Brand Moves into the Industry

DANBURY, Conn., January 15, 2004 — Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX), a leader in the development of industrial gas processes and technologies, today announced the launch of the ColdFront™ brand. The introduction of the ColdFront brand is concurrent with the commercialization of a new refrigeration technology for food processing customers and also differentiates Praxair Food Technologies’ extensive offering of innovative freezing and chilling systems from competitive technology. The new ColdFront ultra performance line of cryogenic freezers offers productivity and efficiency values superior to traditional mechanical technology.

"The strength of the ColdFront ultra performance freezers is the ability to provide greater productivity and higher product yield for our food processing customers," says Jeff Standish, director of food and beverage business development. "This is achieved by more efficient use of cryogenic cooling power without increasing the current amount of cryogen used in existing systems," Standish added. "The ColdFront ultra performance freezers' difference is made possible by improvements in the utilization of both liquid cryogen and cryogenic vapor."

In addition to the ultra performance freezers, all of Praxair’s existing cryogenic refrigeration product lines will now be identified under the ColdFront brand. This encompasses those products previously marketed under the CryoShield™ and NitroShield™ trademarks, including the cryogenic spiral, tunnel, immersion and flighted food freezers and all food chilling systems.

Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2003 sales of $5.6 billion. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric and process gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technologies bring productivity and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and others. More information on Praxair is available on the Internet at www.praxair.com.